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Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2010 | Volume: 13 | Issue: 3 | Page No.: 143-147
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Authors

Paweena Rattanasena

Issaraporn Somboonwatthanakul

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Research Article

Pathogenic Bacterial Contaminations in Hospital Cafeteria Foods

Paweena Rattanasena and Issaraporn Somboonwatthanakul
This study aims to examine the pathogenic bacterial contaminations in foods sold in hospital cafeteria. A study was conducted between April and September of 2008 using cafeteria located in Mahasarakham provincial hospital, Thailand, as a study area. The cafeteria foods were evaluated for contaminations with Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium and Streptococcus faecalis, which have been earlier reported to cause nosocomial outbreaks. Of 33 different types of ready-to-eat foods, the majority (54.54%) were found to have bacteria >107 colony forming units per gram of food (cfu g-1), whereas 36.36% and only 9.10% of them were found to have bacteria at 106-107 and <106 cfu g-1, respectively. In addition, most of ready-to-eat foods were also shown to be contaminated with Escherichia coli (57.57%), followed by Streptococcus faecalis (51.51%), Staphylococcus aureus (48.48%) and Salmonella typhimurium (27.27%), respectively. In contrast, of 7 different types of freshly-made foods, the majority (71.42%) were found to have bacterial <106 cfu g-1. Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly found bacteria in freshly-made foods (42.85%), followed by Escherichia coli and Streptococcus faecalis at equal percentages (14.28%). None of the freshly-made foods were found to be contaminated with Streptococcus typhimurium. The results concluded that a number of ready-to-eat foods sold in the Mahasarakham hospital cafeteria were contaminated with several pathogenic bacteria at unacceptable levels. Healthcare authorities should be more aware that ready-to-eat cafeteria foods that are heavily contaminated with pathogenic bacteria may be harmful to healthcare workers and visitors and may result in nosocomial infections of the patients.
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